The Final Leadership Under Pressure Cohort of 2026 Begins in September

The Leadership Under Pressure programme runs twice a year. The September 2026 cohort is the last of this year. I am writing this piece now because the fit conversation for this cohort is a longer process than the average programme enquiry, and the leaders who would benefit most from LUP often do not realise until too late that they do.

What follows is a direct description of what the programme actually is, who it is for, and who it is not for. No marketing register. If you recognise yourself in the description, book a conversation. If you do not, this is not the right engagement.

What LUP is

A six-week, fully virtual, cohort-based programme. Eight participants maximum. Meets twice weekly in small-group sessions. Individual session with me in weeks one, three, and six. Structured written work between sessions.

The focus is specific: the development of integrated capacity to hold sustained pressure in a current role. Not general resilience. Not long-horizon leadership development. The specific work of becoming more genuinely capable under the particular load that the participant is currently carrying, or that they know is arriving.

The substantive content draws on two decades of work with senior leaders in acute and sustained pressure — crisis response, hostile acquisitions, failing businesses, public controversy, organisational transformations that exceeded the capacity of the people leading them. The frameworks involved are specific and different from the Alchemy sequence. The Pressure Response Profile (four automatic patterns under load), the distinction between pressure and chronic activation, the development of integrated rather than tough response, the specific practices for remaining present and regulated under conditions that demand otherwise.

Who the programme is for

Three profiles recur across the cohorts that have benefited most.

The leader currently inside a sustained pressure period. A turnaround. A crisis. A transformation that has exceeded the original scope. A board or ownership change. A period of acute commercial or regulatory pressure. The leader is still in post. The pressure is current and specific. The developmental work has to be done while the pressure is happening, because there is no post-pressure window available.

LUP is designed for this. The six-week timeline exists because longer engagements are not available to leaders in this position — their calendars have been reclaimed by the situation and cannot be opened to the six-month commitment the Alchemy sequence requires. The six weeks is what is actually possible, and the programme is built to do what can be done in that window.

The leader approaching a predictable pressure period. A major acquisition closing in eight weeks. A restructuring being announced. A regulatory review. A product launch that will determine the firm’s next three years. The pressure is not yet here. It will arrive on a specific date the leader can name. The question is whether the leader will have built the capacity to hold it before the window closes.

This is the use case in which LUP produces the most durable results. Preparation is considerably more productive than recovery. A leader who does the work before the pressure arrives encounters the pressure with capacity already developed. A leader who does the work during the pressure develops what they can while carrying what they must. Both work. The former works better.

The leader whose last major pressure period surfaced patterns they want to address before the next one. The aftermath of a genuine test usually produces specific recognitions — of what held, of what did not, of the patterns that appeared under load that the leader had not known were present. This is a specific developmental window. Acting on the recognitions in the following six to twelve months is considerably more productive than waiting until the patterns return, which they reliably do under the next sufficient pressure.

Who the programme is not for

Three profiles that consistently report LUP was not the right engagement for them.

Leaders seeking general leadership development. LUP is not a shorter Alchemy. It is a different programme with different objectives. If the leader does not have a specific pressure situation or near-term pressure event, the Alchemy cohort is almost always the better fit. The six-month format produces structural change. The six-week format produces acute capacity. These are different goods.

Leaders whose primary issue is burnout, not pressure. Burnout and pressure response are related but distinct developmental categories. Leaders who are primarily burnt out need structural recovery before they can productively engage with LUP work — the interventions that would help with pressure integration are not the ones that address depleted reserves. I will sometimes refer leaders in this state to different forms of support rather than accept them into the cohort.

Leaders whose situation is structurally intractable. If the pressure the leader is carrying is a function of a role that cannot be held well by anyone, or an organisation that is actively destroying its senior people, the productive conversation is about leaving the situation rather than developing capacity to endure it. LUP will not solve this. The fit conversation is the right place to surface it honestly.

How the fit conversation works

Thirty minutes, by video. I ask specific questions about the current situation, the specific pressure the leader is navigating or anticipating, what they have tried, what has worked and not worked, what they are looking for. I describe LUP concretely. We discuss whether the programme is likely to be useful for this specific situation.

About half of the conversations I have result in acceptance into the cohort. The other half result in either a recommendation that the leader consider the Alchemy cohort instead, a recommendation of a different form of support entirely, or the conclusion that the timing is not right. All four outcomes are legitimate. The conversation is designed to produce the right decision rather than to convert the leader into the programme.

Practical details for the September 2026 cohort

Starts Monday 7 September. Concludes Friday 16 October. Two 90-minute group sessions per week, typically Tuesday and Thursday, timed to accommodate European and North American participants. Three 60-minute individual sessions with me in weeks one, three, and six. Written work between sessions — typically two to three hours per week, which most participants integrate into their existing reflection or commute time.

Applications close 21 August or when the cohort fills. I speak with every applicant before acceptance. The fit matters both for the individual participant and for the cohort as a whole — the quality of a small group depends significantly on the coherence of the people in it.

If you are inside, or approaching, the specific kind of pressure LUP is designed for, the next step is a fit conversation. The link to book one is above. If you are not, the Alchemy cohort is almost certainly the better fit; the Fall 2026 cohort begins in October.